Arthropod biodiversity of Nouragues Natural Reserve, French Guiana: a preliminary exploration

The arthropod fauna of tropical rainforests is known to be extraordinarily diverse, but most of the species are undescribed.  In this study, we explore this diversity in the primary rainforest of Nouragues Natural Reserve in French Guiana using intensive sampling techniques and next generation sequencing technology. In September and October of 2015, arthropods were collected using Malaise traps, pitfall/flight intercept traps, canopy/light traps, and Berlese funnels which were serviced daily resulting in roughly 400 samples. Samples will be ground up and the DNA of the entire sample will be extracted. From this bulk extraction, a mini barcode region of COI will be amplified and sequenced using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology to provide an estimate of the number of operational taxonomic units per sample. To evaluate the accuracy of these estimates, and to calibrate percent divergence figures, a subset of specimens sorted to morphospecies will be retained as vouchers. One leg from each of these vouchers will be barcoded individually and another will be included in its respective bulk sample. These data will enable the construction of species accumulation curves to provide estimates of the arthropod biodiversity in the area which will be compared to the results of the exhaustive survey conducted by Basset and colleagues in Panama in 2012. This study will serve as a first exploration of the biodiversity of this primary tropical rainforest in addition to assessing the efficacy of NGS techniques for rapid biodiversity surveys.